NUS team discovers way to rejuvenate eggs of older women

Researchers' breakthrough could boost success of assisted reproductive tech

- Judith Tan

Judith Tan Correspondent A woman's eggs age a lot faster than the rest of her, cutting her chances of giving birth to a baby as she gets older.

But researchers from Singapore have made a breakthrough in reversing the age of women's eggs, paving the way for greater success in assisted reproductive technologies such as in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).

While still restricted to the petri dish for now, the research findings offer renewed hope for older women looking to take motherhood off the back burner after taking time to focus on other life priorities, including their careers.

The discovery centres on how the follicular environment plays a crucial role in the development and quality of a woman's oocytes, or immature egg cells.

Putting a young egg cell in an aged follicle aged it, while the reverse actually rejuvenated older egg cells, scientists from the Mechanobiology Institute (MBI) at the National University of Singapore and the NUS Bia-Echo Asia Centre for Reproductive Longevity and Equality (ACRLE) found.

Mechanobiology is an emerging multidisciplinary field that studies how cells and tissues sense and respond to mechanical signals or forces that regulate a wide range of biological activities, such as cell migration, cell proliferation and single molecule behaviour.

A follicle is a small, fluid-filled sac in the ovaries that contains an oocyte. Several follicles begin to develop during each menstrual cycle, but usually just one egg cell fully matures and is released during ovulation.